Body Image

Just as Paul Klee said he liked to take a line for a walk, Seattle photographer Steven Miller takes meaning for a ride. His photos refuse to be about what the audience’s common sense and previous experience say they’re about.

Ropes signify bondage, either that or the capture of a criminal or the immobilization of a victim.

In Miller’s new series, titled “Bound,” ropes are connective tissue tying one man to his lover or a solitary to the trappings of his mental cave. There is no tension in these prints, no latent violence or dominance, one over another. They are thought given flesh within the context of real flesh, weighty men pondering their lives.

Miller showed them at Davidson Galleries in September. Those who missed his exhibit can catch a few in the group show, “Body Image,” at the Seattle Art Museum’s Rental Gallery, Nov. 8-Dec. 8.